Review Category: Books

Review: Magic Words – The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore / Author: Lance Parkin / Publisher: Aurum Press / Release Date: November 7th

A towering, instantly recognizable icon who hides himself away in untrendy Northampton; the author of best selling graphic novels who has turned his back on lucrative deals with DC and Marvel. Alan Moore is a conundrum, an enigma, and an oxymoron. Magic Words is a brave attempt to get to grips with one of the titans of modern pop culture.

The book is subtitled “the Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore”, but the private man remains defiantly elusive throughout, although we do learn a few nuggets: that Moore took LSD when he was 17, that he lived in a ménage a trois for a number of years and that he doesn’t have an internet connection. This is, primarily, an account of Moore’s professional career, which (at least as Lance Parkin tells it) divides into two sharply contrasting phases.

Phase one was the meteoric ascent to geek superstardom, one seminal title following another like chart-busting tracks on a greatest hits album: his first break on Warrior with Marvelman and V for Vendetta (courtesy of Starburst’s very own Dez Skinn); his work on 2000AD; then his genre-redefining revamp of an obscure DC character called Swamp Thing; and finally the mainstream breakthrough of Watchmen.

If phase one was almost dreamlike, phase two has had, at times, a tinge of nightmare. It kicked off with Moore severing all ties with DC, part of a pattern of bitter feuds (he’d already had vocal fallings-out with Marvel and Dez Skinn, and more were to follow). It was a period that saw Moore subsidizing difficult, personal long-term projects such as From Hell and Lost Girls with gun-for-hire work and his flamboyant America’s Best Comics line. There has been plenty for fans to get their teeth into, but anyone who feared that Moore had lost the plot wouldn’t have been reassured by his declaration in 1994 that he had become a magician and was now worshipping the snake god Glycon.

Parkin struggles dutifully to make sense of Moore’s mystical beliefs, but it’s a big ask, and anyway surely the whole appeal of the occult is that it’s beyond rational debate? By the end, Moore continues to be an unknowable figure, ever in retreat over some horizon of his own devising. Still, readers are sure to love the chapters about the creation of those dazzling early masterpieces, and the book also casts a light on the history of comics from the late ’70s onwards. You might be surprised to learn just how awash with money the industry was in the late ’80s and early ’90s, with eye-watering sums being doled out to top scribes: for instance, Image paid Moore $100,000 for writing a single issue of Spawn. With figures like that being bandied about, you can’t blame a kid from Northampton for going a little potty.

 

Review: Dream London / Author: Tony Ballantyne / Publisher: Solaris Books / Release Date: Out Now

Unlike his previous pure sci-fi novels such as Divergence and Capacity, this latest offering by Tony Ballantyne is an urban fantasy. Set, as are so many, in a version of London that can be traced to our own, how well has this BSFA and Philip K. Dick nominee crafted this particular tale and how original is it?

The story focuses on one Captain Jim Wedderburn who becomes our window into this transformed world as he wanders the ever-changing landscape of Dream London. Captain Wedderburn is not an everyday hero – whoremonger and self-interested criminal, he has few redeeming qualities and makes for an interesting character. The main character though is the city itself, which has become Dream London and every day the buildings, parks, streets and the inhabitants themselves all change. Events become stranger and stranger, as the mysterious cartel (aligned with the US who are debating a nuclear strike on the city) and the Daddio want every rogue of note to work for him.

For the most part this is a well-executed and strong novel bearing comparison to Neverwhere. The opening chapter is as well crafted as any I have read for a long time, the setting and characters are increasingly outlandish, and as the action progresses the reader becomes more interested in how London became Dream London and how Captain Jim might save the day. Although London-based urban fantasies are quite common at the moment (e.g., Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London, Paul Cornell’s London Falling or Benedict Jacka’s Alex Verus novels), this carves out its own niche by allowing the author’s imagination to twist every aspect of the city.

It is only towards the very end that the story moves from the fantasy to the surreal and in making some life-choices; Captain Jim learns that his role is mostly one of distraction and that he is actually of little real consequence to the story’s resolution. Sadly the story also explains most of what is going on and, as with the end of Wizard of Oz, there is maybe a sense of disappointment. We do get to tap into the zeitgeist as we learn that the instigators of London’s demise were the bankers followed by estate agents and with a strong dollop of Blitz spirit Londoners themselves save the day. It is nice, though, to have an author write a standalone story rather than start yet another series. For the most part this novel rates a strong 9, by the end you’re left with a…

Review: Nekromantik / Editor: Jörg Buttgereit / Publisher: Martin Schmitz Verlag / Release Date: Out Now

No one who ever came across Jörg Buttgereit’s most famous films has ever forgotten them. To some, the two Nekromantik movies represent everything that was wrong with exploitation cinema, to others they could be regarded as much as art as any film by Luis Bunuel or Federico Fellini. In this new book, six academics explore the themes and political and social ramifications of these controversial films.

Among the contributors is Linnie Blake, head of the recently opened Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester University. She provides both a brief biography of the German director and explains how the films fit in with German history. Another is a former gravedigger who gives an inside view into the realities of the subject.

While to some the films are disturbing horror flicks which don’t need to be over-analysed, the writers here often make very good and clear arguments to the contrary. For fans of the films (of which there are many), the articles make for very interesting reading.

The book is dual-language, in that one half is English, then you can flip it over for the text in German. What is better, however, is instead of lazily reprinting the whole thing; both sections have unique photographic illustrations. As one would expect, these tend to be of a rather graphic nature, but anyone picking up the book would presumably be familiar with the imagery seen in the films anyway. They are black-and-white, but that doesn’t make them any less stomach churning (even behind-the-scenes shots are stickily explicit).

It’s a very intelligent book about a challenging subject, and will not appeal to all fans, especially those who are only interested in the gore aspect. For those who like to be a little more cerebral, it’s a good read.

Review: Behind the Sofa – Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who / Editor: Steve Berry / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: October 31st

Everyone, it seems, loves Doctor Who. Or rather, everyone, at some point or other, has loved Doctor Who. This warm and charming book, an updated and expanded version of an edition first published last year, is a timely reminder, with the Fiftieth Anniversary celebrations upon us, of just why this show remains so important and special to so many people after five decades.

It’s easy to forget just how hugely influential Doctor Who has been since it flickered onto TV screens on a cold November night in 1963, how those first images of the impossibly-huge Police Box, a mysterious and grumpy old man and his unearthly granddaughter along with that pulsating radiophonic score fired up the imaginations of viewers young and old and in many cases seared into place a lifelong obsession. Because Behind the Sofa is all about obsession as the great and the good, the well-known, the infamous and the ‘who’s that again?’ recount some of their earliest memories of the show, the moments that remain imprinted on their memories, close encounters with the stars and random memories of books, toys and games long since lost or destroyed. New to this volume are entries by the likes of Girl in the Fireplace actress Sophie Myles (she didn’t understand the script), K9’s voice John Leeson (memories of scrabbling around on all fours in rehearsal room floors), Mel actress Bonnie Langford (screaming in the key of E), Bernard Cribbins (that Dalek Invasion of Earth anecdote again), Richard Madeley (remembering the first episode), Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs (refusing to go to Sea Scout camp as a boy for fear of missing an episode of Planet of the Daleks) as well as luminaries such as Mat Irvine, Lindsay Duncan, Ben Aaronovitch. Old favourites from the first edition are still there, of course, including comedian Rufus Hound’s tear-stained epiphany in a hotel room watching 2008‘s Silence in the Library two-parter, author Daniel Blythe’s tear-jerking farewell to Lis Sladen/Sarah Jane and DJ Jo Whiley’s admission that she was once a member of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and, like many of us, spent happy hours watching ropey fourth-generation VHS copies of old serials in the years before official video releases from the BBC.

It’s not just the household names who hold Doctor Who close to their hearts so don’t make the mistake of skipping past entries written by obscure writers, journalists and cryptozoologists. Everyone’s got something interesting to say about Doctor Who, everyone’s got a special memory and, it seems, every moment of the show’s long history is dear to someone. In a year when new, glossy souvenir books and dense analytical volumes are appearing week after week, Behind the Sofa, with 100% of its royalties going to Alzheimer’s Research UK (sufferer Terry Pratchett provides a new introduction) is in reality the one book your conscience pretty much obliges you to buy. Good-natured, up-lifting, amusing and heart-warming, it reminds us how far we – and Doctor Who – have come since 1963 and that, a little over ten years ago, a book like this just wouldn’t have been possible. Essential reading.

Review: Script Doctor / Author: Andrew Cartmel / Publisher: Miwk / Release Date: November 28th

Some chalices are more poisoned than others. Pity poor Andrew Cartmel, the bright, ambitious young script editor who found himself taking over the responsibility for commissioning stories for Doctor Who at a period when the BBC were embarrassed by the show’s very existence and when its chiefs routinely admitted they just didn’t watch it and just couldn’t care less about it. No-one really sets out to make bad TV and whilst this reviewer has little or no time for the era of Doctor Who Cartmel was responsible for, it’s hard not to sympathise with him for the enormous and impossible task he was undertaking in attempting to get back on course a show which had crashed onto the rocks years before and had been slowly sinking ever since.

Script Doctor, originally published in 2005 but now reissued by Miwk with 32 all-new pages of photographs, is based on diaries and notes kept by Cartmel during the turbulent period he was working of Doctor Who and trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Arriving just as Sylvester McCoy was coming on board as the Seventh Doctor, Cartmel is rightfully appalled by the dire Time and Rani scripts produced by veteran writers Pip and Jane Baker with whom Cartmel enjoyed a frustrating relationship. The story, one of the very worst in the Doctor Who canon, left Cartmel in the firing line from fans and friends alike even as he was battling to commission new writers who were proposing what, in his opinion, were better scripts. But that’s all subjective and we all have our opinions on the merits (or otherwise) of the likes of Paradise Towers, Delta and the Bannermen and Silver Nemesis. Cartmel was constantly thwarted across his time on the show by his producer John Nathan-Turner’s inability to recognise a good script, badly-lit studio production, unimaginative directors and designers and scrappy visual FX. But it’s hard to reconcile all this with Cartmel’s own assertion that McCoy and his companion Sophie Aldred as Ace were “a unique team” (they certainly were but perhaps not in the way he imagined) and that every other script was “terrific”. Excited by scripts in McCoy’s second season, Cartmel seems to genuinely believe that by the third McCoy season his plan to make the show unmissable again, the so-called ‘Cartmel Masterplan’ (which seemed to consist of putting McCoy in a darker coat and making the stories almost incomprehensible), would make the show the talk of the TV schedules again. Unfortunately Cartmel hasn’t recorded whatever disappointment he must have felt when this didn’t happen or, indeed, much in the way of emotion or disappointment when the show finally fizzled out in 1989.

But Script Doctor is irresistible reading, providing a fascinating look back at the machinations of the BBC in the late 1980s when the show wasn’t even considered worthy of discussion at the Corporation’s weekly programme reviews. “They don’t watch it, Andrew” he was told dismissively. Doctor Who is a unique and fragile format and those who tamper with its core values do so at their own peril. It happened in the late 1980s, some might say it’s happening again today; Cartmel came into Doctor Who determined to reinvent the wheel which was absolutely what it didn’t need – it just needed the wheel to be balanced again and the screws tightened. Cartmel’s plans may have been misguided and misbegotten (and ultimately doomed) but his memoir of his time on the show is a vital and compelling – and occasionally clumsily-worded – record of the darkest days in Doctor Who history when the show teetered on the abyss before finally plunging into oblivion. It’s a cautionary tale and one worth bearing in mind as we put on our party hats and tuck into our TARDIS cakes and celebrate the show’s fiftieth anniversary. Nothing lasts forever…

Review: The Casebook of Newbury and Hobbes / Author: George Mann / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

This delightful selection of fifteen short stories – some virtually novellas, some just a few pages long – is an ideal stepping point for newcomers to George Mann’s deliciously evocative steampunk world of Victorian detectives, eerie creatures and clanking machines. Sir Maurice Newbury and his ‘assistant’ Miss Veronica Hobbes are a slightly askew version of Holmes and Watson, operating in the same Victorian England of hansom cabs and choking smogs and of stiff-upper-lipped English gentlemen living in sprawling country mansions, where devious doings are afoot. But Newbury and Hobbes’ world is much more arcane and Gothic, populated by mad scientists, tree-demons and lunatic killers; Newbury, a sometime agent for Queen Victoria, even has his own ‘Irene Adler’ in the shape of the slippery and evasive Lady Arkwell. Oddly enough Miss Hobbes doesn’t get much of a look-in here as most of the stories see Newbury teaming up with one of the series’ many supporting characters such as crusty Detective Inspector Charles Bainbridge and Newbury’s ultimately ill-fated young associate Templeton Black.

The stories are easily accessible in themselves but newbies (like this reviewer) can only benefit from the inclusion of a series ‘timeline’ and a history of the stories – some of which are new and original to this volume – which helps to make sense of the long and convoluted history of the characters. The Casebook chronicles adventures – some of them little more than two-handed conversations between characters – which take place from the end of the nineteenth century to approaching the middle of the twentieth. The very best are the ones which tell an actual tale rather than just add colour and background to already established characters. The best of the long-form bunch are probably ‘The Lady Killer’ in which Newbury is trapped on a crashed Underground carriage with a potential killer on the loose, ‘The Dark Path’ which recounts a mysterious encounter with a living tree-creature and the hugely atmospheric ‘What Lies Beneath’, in which a mechanical tentacled machine heaves itself out of the Thames at the dead of night. Told from the perspective of Dr. Watson, the story features a cameo appearance by none other than Sherlock Holmes himself and beautifully illustrates the antipathy that Mann suggests exists between two Great Detectives operating in smoky London in the same era.

Mann writes with a real flair both for the Victorian Age with all its trappings and the more scientifically advanced early years of the twentieth century where carriages gave way to motorcars, and there’s a real poignancy in some of the later vignettes in which the characters are older and their adventures are recounted as fanciful memories. It’s gorgeous stuff that will appeal to Holmes and Watson and steampunk fans alike.

Review: Easy Go / Author: Michael Crichton (writing as John Lange) / Publisher: Hard Case Crime / Release Date: Out Now

One of Crichton’s earlier books, when he was still publishing under pseudonyms, Easy Go might as well be the very definition of pulp fiction. It’s fast, over the top, cheesy and feels cheap, yet for all its B-movie flaws you keep turning pages. It’s straightforward and to the point, with little floundering or meandering about the plot, offering the reader fast pacing to match the action. 

A heist story set in Egypt, the book follows a five-man group of smugglers searching for the lost tomb of a Pharaoh. Even if they do find it though, they’ll be lucky to escape with their lives…

Split into three separate parts, the book’s structure and narrative format is definitely one of its two greatest strengths, keeping up a rapid pace, while at the same time maintaining just enough detail to make the reader understand what is going on. There are no truly grandiose descriptions but it remains serviceable and makes the book accessible. 

Easy Go’s second major boon is that, despite its pulpy style, it has strong characterisations. While far from being deeply written or complex figures, the heroes and villains are solidly conceived. True, many times they feel more like extensions of the plot than true individuals, but the book was never intended to be a character piece and is driven more by the planned heist than by dramatic interaction. 

Unfortunately the characterisation doesn’t carry over to the dialogue itself. There are rarely moments where Pierce, Barnaby, Varese or Nikos say something truly memorable or witty. As with many elements of the book, what they say is serviceable and keeps the plot going forwards and that’s about it. It’s one of several places where the book shows the author’s inexperience at this time.

As a whole Easy Go is one of those titles you pick up, read, and then forget. It’s definitely a one shot story that will hold your attention until the last page, but there’s no benefit from reading it again. It’s average, but ultimately the good kind of average.

Review: Once Upon a Time – Behind the Magic / Author: Paul Terry, Tara Bennett / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

TV companion books tend to start popping up around about this time of year. Not only are we close to the primary gift-giving season, new seasons of American TV shows tend to start round about now, so it makes a sort of sense that books filled with gossip, interviews and lots of glossy pictures about your favourite show will start hitting the shelves.

Behind the Magic covers the first two series of urban fantasy fairy tale adventure series, Once Upon a Time, and is filled with cast and crew interviews, lots of pictures and some nice insights into the show. The book is official, which is a nice way of saying that the show’s lawyers have looked over the entire contents carefully, and not a single bit of information is going to scandalise you. If you were hoping for the latest gossip from the set, look elsewhere, everything here is tame and marked with a seal of approval from a public relations office.

Still, it’s very nicely done. They are some insights into how much effort it takes to put a complex fantasy show like Once Upon a Time on the telly, and the sheer attention to detail put into every single aspect is very impressive. There are a fair few filler features (such as a breakdown of all the McGuffins from the series), but mostly it’s a glossy book jam-packed with lots of nice things about the show.

It is worth noting that Once Upon A Time – Behind The Magic is mostly a compilation from the Once Upon a Time magazine produced by the same publisher, though this book does have a more complete series guide, and of course, a sturdier (though still soft) cover. This is very much one for the fans; if you’ve not seen the show you’re going to get very little out of it, but those who can’t wait till Season Three, or have a space next to their box sets that needs filling, will want to seek it out.

Review: Xerox Ferox – The Wild World of the Horror Film Fanzine / Author: John Szpunar / Publisher: Headpress / Release Date: Out Now

Before the Internet, as hard as it is for some people to believe, people bought printed magazines. And before everyone and his dog had blogs, real film fanatics published fanzines – often typewritten and photocopied (hence the title here), and distributed through the post throughout the world to avid fans keen to learn about films they hadn’t heard of.

In this new book from the wonderful people at Headpress, who know a thing or two about publishing fanzines themselves, some of the key names in the history of fan-publishing are interviewed, and shed light on the joys and pitfalls that come with such entry-level journalism.

This is a labour of love for Szpunar (former head of DVD label Barrel Entertainment), who picked up the project after having it shelved for several years. The sheer volume of people he has managed to interview (with the occasional help of Headpress’ own David Kerekes), at all levels, is highly commendable. From influential, well-known, figures such as Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog), the late Chas Balun (Deep Red), Bob Martin (Fangoria), Jimmy McDonough (Sleazoid Express and biographies of Russ Meyer and Andy Milligan) to lesser known but equally important people such as Bhob Stewart (one time editor of Castle of Frankenstein), Steve Green (who wrote the Fanzine Focus section in The Dark Side, which is probably where most UK fans would hear of these magazines) and Donald Farmer (The Splatter Times). Each interviewee gives a frank and open insight into what inspired them and how their passion for films sometimes led to greater things. It is thanks to fanzines such as Samhain, Little Shoppe of Horrors and Shock Xpress that many readers were introduced to the likes of Jorg Buttgeriet, Coffin Joe and Jess Franco. As a resource of useless information, they were invaluable. As the interviews are all in separate chapters, dipping in and out of the book is easy. Although, no doubt readers will find themselves delving deeper as they go, as it is so engrossing.

The brick-sized book, which runs to some 800 pages, is illustrated throughout with suitably photocopy-style photos, and the advertisement reproductions are, like the text, brilliantly fascinating.

With many of these old, hand-produced mags, highly collectable now, and with the resurgence of such titles as We Belong Dead, Xerox Ferox is a timely release. A chance for older fans to reminisce – or even go up to the loft to rediscover some of the actual copies – or younger readers who have never known a time without information at the touch of a button, to read about how the old-timers had to do things. Very highly recommended.

Review: The Falconer/ Author: Elizabeth May / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: Out Now

Young Adult fiction tends to be a bit of a mash-up these days. The usual formula is to take as many cool ideas as possible and see how well they go together. Which probably explains why The Falconer is a Scottish-monster-hunting-steampunk-adventure-romance. A subgenre so long that it probably wouldn’t fit on the shelf at Waterstones.

The Falconer follows the adventures of Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas who, following the tragic and mysterious murder of her mother, has become a hunter of strange and sinister faeries. Sneaking her electro-shock flintlocks into her complicated Victorian frocks, and trying to fit the demands of being an aristocratic lady in with a busy schedule of beating up soul-eating horrors. Of course, she keeps her nocturnal hobbies away from the prying eyes of society, which makes the potential scandal even more delicious and helps further build the tension.

A ticking clock is established pretty early on, with the promise that the hideous faery creatures that have been trapped beneath the city of Edinburgh for decades and are slowly being unleashed onto an unsuspecting and relatively defenseless population. As you may expect, all the story elements here have been turned up to eleven; the steampunk elements include very high-tech machines such as automated drones and medical devices, the monsters are hideous and almost unstoppable, and the romance is frustrating, unobtainable and full of lip-quivering, hand-on-heart longing.

Elizabeth May spins a good tale, mixing the high concept elements in effortlessly with the action scenes to produce a rapid and engaging read. The Scottish backdrop really fits, and combined with the rather beautifully written action scenes, we get a strong cinematic feel that really does make one think that this would work very well as a movie (or at least a TV drama). The Falconer is a memorable bit of fun, and one that you’re likely to want to re-read immediately. A stunning debut and very firmly recommended.